As a longtime ( 1957) White Sox fan who has lived mostly in New England the last 50 years, I find the Red Sox fans when I go to Fenway to be overall polite, knowledgeable and very much into the game. Many sit in company seats since the Red Sox sell thousands of them. As I posted elsewhere, typical Fenway crowd is a husband/wife and 2 kids in the grandstand and college kids in the bleachers. Very safe neighborhood surrounding the ballpark. If you don't have free tickets, can be an expensive day.

Average WS ticket on Stub Hub was $1,400 and range was $500-$5000. Weather will be cold and damp tomorrow night.

I've never really had anything against Red Sox fans. If in the middle of the 1960s my father had taken the job in Boston instead of Dallas, the most loathsome place I've ever experienced, I have no doubt that 1967 would have turned me into a Red Sox fan for life, and I'm sure I wouldn't be any different a Red Sox fan than I am a White Sox fan. Really, Red Sox fans seem a decent group. They're no more smug than Yankees fans, who have less reason to be. They're less smug than Cubs fans who have no reason to be. Really, they're less smug than Bulls fans during the Jordan championship runs (although both of those fanbases were lampooned on Saturday Night Live).

They certainly aren't apathetic the way the Rays fans are. Any team that makes it to the World Series, especially this postseason, is going to be either smug or apathetic and their fans will be hated by teams who didn't make it. Red Sox fans aren't aggressively nasty as the A's fans are. Maybe Dodgers fans aren't as violent as they have show they can be in the last couple of years, the rivalry with the Giants bringing out the worst in fans of both teams.

I can see if you personally are surrounded by people who support a team that you don't, it can be a terrible thing. When I lived in Alaska, I worked with Cubs fans and 2003 was unbearable until the collapse made it so enjoyable. I lived in a Mariners community, so if Seattle had made it to the World Series in those years, I might have found Mariners fans too smug to tolerate. In 2005, there wasn't enough of me to go around in Juneau for the community to hate the White Sox, but the Cubs fans in my office considered White Sox fans to be the worst fans in the world long before 2005.

I've never really found Cardinals fans to be that smug, really. Not in an obnoxious Yankees way (Billy Crystal said that when he was growing up, he chill of autumn was called "World Series weather.") I've actually found a kinship with Cardinals fans for years because they generally treat the Cubs like a rented mule and put Cubs fans in their place.

Here is one reason I dislike STL. Ponson hits Anderson & Ozuna back to back after the White Sox are beating them down. Riske hits Chris Duncan the next inning so LaRussa & Dave Duncan cry and complain.

STL 6 White Sox 20 Final!

The final game of the series the White Sox are 1 hit but win 1-0 on a Thome solo HR!

Here is one reason I dislike STL. Ponson hits Anderson & Ozuna back to back after the White Sox are beating them down. Riske hits Chris Duncan the next inning so LaRussa & Dave Duncan cry and complain.

STL 6 White Sox 20 Final!

The final game of the series the White Sox are 1 hit but win 1-0 on a Thome solo HR!

Didn't the Cardinals accuse the Sox of stealing all of their signs that series and that was why they scored so many runs?

My BOS dislike comes from chc fans wearing Red Cubs gear into U.S. Cellular Field. It's a fact because I work with a few of them and attended a group outing with them!

I remember the early 2000s where Cubs fans felt some sort of bond with the Red Sox. And yes, pleny of northsiders loved to wear BoSox stuff to our stadium. Then Boston wins two World Series and has consistent success while the Cubs are still the Cubs. I'm pretty sure real Red Sox fans don't give two ****s about the Cubbies.

I remember the early 2000s where Cubs fans felt some sort of bond with the Red Sox. And yes, pleny of northsiders loved to wear BoSox stuff to our stadium. Then Boston wins two World Series and has consistent success while the Cubs are still the Cubs. I'm pretty sure real Red Sox fans don't give two ****s about the Cubbies.

That's what is so funny. Cubs fans think they have a kinship with Boston, but Boston fans don't give a **** about them.

I will root for the Cardinals (mostly due to geographic proximity, but also because it pisses off the Cubs fans I know), though I won't be too upset if Boston wins. After all, they were considerate enough to dispatch the Detroit Tigers just in time for me to attend an annual teachers' convention with several hundred Michigan educators. Last year (and 2006 as well) was a frickin' nightmare...

Listening to people on this site, we may as well root for "meteor!" for pretty much every World Series matchup. NYY or Bos? Can't blame anyone for hating them. Philly? Worst fans in sports! Tampa Bay? Fans don't support their team and don't deserve a title. Texas? Nolan Ryan is an ass. St. Louis? Smug fans! Pirates? Can't root for them because we hate Steelers fans. ...and so forth.

At some point, it gets ridiculous and you're left with just "hating" pretty much every WS team each year instead of enjoying the Fall Classic.

I think the only teams I would actively root against in a World Series are the Yankees, Red Sox, and (if they ever made it) the Cubs.